Potentially deadly “zombie” viruses frozen in arctic permafrost are thawing because of climate change, sparking fears that they could fuel the next global pandemic.
Scientists have long theorised that the deepest Siberian permafrost conceals million-year-old microbes, lifeforms much older than the human race, which, having emerged 300,000 years ago, is comparatively young.
The 700,000 years of separation means that should they ever thaw from their current home deep within the ice, humans are poorly equipped to fend them off.
Unlike other diseases like the flu – which has existed for so long that it has no official place on the historical record – humans have not developed generational protections from these as of yet undiscovered super viruses.
The identification of these microbes – known as Methuselah microbes – has now led scientists to issue an urgent warning.
Among the scientists warning the general public is Jean-Michel Claverie, a professor of genomics and bioinformatics at Aix-Marseille University in Marseille, France.
Professor Claverie has said that analyses of emerging viral threats are focussing erroneously on the global south, where diseases have been known to propagate and move north.
He told The Guardian it is an “oversight”, as diseases are also looming in the north, in areas currently encased in ice.
The academic said: “At the moment, analyses of pandemic threats focus on diseases that might emerge in southern regions and then spread north.”
“By contrast, little attention has been given to an outbreak that might emerge in the far north and then travel south – and that is an oversight, I believe.
“There are viruses up there that have the potential to infect humans and start a new disease outbreak.”
Scientists led by Professor Claverie in 2014 found that these “zombie” Siberian viruses could still infect cultured single-cell organisms.
While they posed no known risk to humans, the academic warned it didn’t mean Methuselah microbes “might not be able to trigger illnesses in humans”.
The possibility of a virus “once infecting a Neanderthal coming back at us” has led the professor to team with international education network the University of the Arctic to plan for a potential future outbreak.
The network is working on plans to establish quarantine facilities and medical expertise that could identify infections with “zombie” viruses early on and prevent a wider outbreak.
